A wide variety of devices utilize electronic compasses. These include surveying devices, Geographic Information System (GIS) data collectors, handheld navigation devices, automobile navigation devices, and even wristwatches.
Typically, an electronic compass module detects variations in the Earth's magnetic field to determine its heading. However, conversion of the data received by the electronic compass module into a usable heading often necessitates numerous floating point mathematical computations. Also, generating a heading often involves collecting more than one measurement of the Earth's magnetic field and an averaging of the values to generate the heading. Often, applications which utilize a compass heading will poll the electronic function often for heading updates. For example, an automotive navigation system may poll the electronic compass module every second. Thus, the frequent polling for compass headings can result in constant, or near constant, operation of the electronic compass module.